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Prattling about Profound Productivity

Posted on by grahams

I’ve been really productive lately… Witness the complete success of my pulled pork experiment, fixing the sinlaws DirectTivo (I think I fixed it, at least), sprinting towards deadlines at work with reckless abandon, and traveling all over the place to be with family and friends.

I made a mad dash to get my project to Alpha release by the end of June, and managed to demo it at our weekly development meeting on the 30th. I think I impressed everyone in on the demo, I’m pretty sure several of the people who were doubting whether or not I could deliver on my performance and compatibility claims were put in their place. And really, while I referred to this as an Alpha release, imho it is Alpha-in-name-only. While it’s the first release to grace the hands of the testers, it’s feature complete and has been pretty well beat-upon by me and my fellow developer. Hopefully they will beat the hell out of it and track down anything I missed, but I feel great about the quality as it stands now (not quite shippable, but definitely branchable).

The pulled pork has been going over like gangbusters (with everyone besides , that is, who isn’t a fan)… I brought some coworkers home for lunch and each had a few sandwiches… For my entire life I thought Barbeque was some kind of voodoo art which required tons of specialized equipment, but it turns out you can make the real deal with stuff most people have access to.

Pulling a Jared

Posted on by grahams

I woke up at 3am on Monday morning with pretty severe pain on the right side of my stomach. After some failed attempts at “passing” I quickly came to suspect that while several of the other symptoms were missing (most notably nausea) that it was possible my Appendix needed to go. Some quick research online backed up these suspicions, so I woke up who took me to Mt. Auburn Hospital. A CT Scan provided the definitive proof; My appendix needed to go. I moved from the ER to my room some time around 8-9am, and I turned out not only to get a private room, but one with a beautiful view overlooking the Charles. Corinna took some pictures, I’ll post them when I can.

I moved up to the Surgery wing about 11:30am, and we were waiting around, filling out forms and waiting for the room to be prepped when Corinna excused herself. She took one step back, her eyes rolled back, and she passed out, clocking herself on a nearby desk. The whole place scurried to help her, and the ended up taking her to the ER for observation, ultimately releasing her, with solid lump on her head, before I got back to my room. They removed the appendix laparoscopically, so instead of a big incision they cut three tiny holes which don’t require stitches.

I spent the next 6 or 7 hours in the room recuperating before I decided to go home. The hospital staff said I could stay the night if I wanted, but even with the private room, the hospital isn’t exactly the best place for me to sleep. I was home by 10pm, less than 18 hours after all this had started. I’m home recovering now, I’m pretty sore but it’s not too bad. The staff said I can return to work as soon as I feel up to it, but it might be the rest of the week. Judging from how uncomfortable I am in a sitting position right now, it definitely won’t be for a few days.. Right now I’m just looking forward to taking a shower this evening.

I’ve been in the hospital twice in the nearly 5 years Corinna and I have been together. This doesn’t bode well for her. At least I’m not as goobed out as I was last time. I’m pretty self-sufficient today… I can go to the bathroom on my own and everything. :)

Attn: Arsenal on the Charles

Posted on by grahams

Parking has become a pretty crazy problem here at the Arsenal. Nobody seems to know whether the problem is increased load from the tenants, or from outside pressure (people using the FREE garage then taking the 70 bus to Central, etc), but it is now not uncommon to be unable to find any parking in the complex if you arrive late.

Today, the Arsenal had security officers with clipboards posted at all the garage entrances, making people roll down their windows, asking them “We want to make sure the people using the garage work in the arsenal”, and then waving them through. What, exactly, does this accomplish? Why would it be so hard to distribute parking passes to all the tenants? It can’t be that expensive to print up a few hundred hang tags for employee cars… Instead, you have this security crew assigned to create traffic and test peoples ability to lie. I wasn’t even asked what company I worked for, I was just told “We want to make sure the people parking here work here”. This would be much more frustrating if I didn’t walk or take the bus on most days…

Awesome Allergy Warnings

Posted on by grahams

Awesome Allergy Warnings
Originally uploaded by seangraham

Geoff at work found this awesome allergy warning on the wrapper of one of the candies my company gave out in our Halloween goodie bags:

“This product contains Tartrazina Colouring (E-102) that can cause alergical reactions in sensible people”

I was also fond of “On Rare Occasions This Product May Contain Gluten”. If you’re allergic to Gluten, are you going to play Russian Roulette?

Holy Venezuela!

Posted on by grahams

For lunch today I ordered the Hallaca at La Casa de Pedro, which was the special of the day..  It is a traditional holiday meal, so I’m hoping that it is offered throughout the holidays so I can have it again!  It was one of the more delicious things I’ve eaten in awhile..  We’re so lucky to have such a great restaurant with such great lunch deals right here in the complex at work…

Flurry Event

Posted on by grahams

I saw the shortest little snowstorm at the end of my walk to work this morning, about 30 seconds of the lightest flurries I have ever seen then nothing…  It was like a teaser trailer.

We caught Blade Runner: The Final Cut last night with the film club..  It was refreshing to see a director treat the revisiting of an earlier, classic film with the respect they should.  Great crowd last night, afterwards we ended up at Fugakuyu, which was a bit pricey for the film club…

Work and Space

Posted on by grahams

I had been working on a custom feature addition to FlexSnap at work for the past few weeks which was keeping me off of my main project, and also off of working on the new MacBook work bought..   It came in in the middle of a project and it would have taken too long for me to switch to a different machine running a different OS.  But now that I’m “back in the saddle” I’ve moved everything to the Mac and can (hopefully) be full-time Mac at work now.

Tonight I’m heading with Howard over to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for open observatory night..  It’s not exactly astronomy weather, but we’ll at least catch the lecture…

Total Insanity

Posted on by grahams

This weekend was totally out of control… 

[info]coco_b

and I left for the annual Halloween Party in Dryden, NY after work on Thursday…  We made pretty good time, and listened to Game 2 of the World Series on the radio during the trip..  It was the first time I had listened to baseball on the radio, and I was surprised as to how easy it was to follow the game.  I look forward to being able to listen to games on Sirius after the merger during future trips.  We went straight to the Bed and Breakfast across the street from the Hammond/Gunther (or, as I have dubbed them, The Hamsters) household.  We saw the last inning of the game, and Corinna went to bed.  I joined the party across the street and stayed up far too late.   The weekend is a blur…  I actually even had a costume this year, it only took me 5 years to actually dress up for the big Halloween party.  There was a pig roast.   There were abandoned buildings.  There was

[info]sophusalexander

who is beginning his slow reign of the human race.

Sunday, after the long drive back to Boston, we settled in to watch what became the final game of the 2007 World Series.  I don’t know if it was because of my lack of sleep, but it was a real nail biter for me…  I was so completely shredded after the game that I nearly passed out.

I finally have a Mac at work.  This is a wonderful thing, but it will be awhile before I can really adopt it as my new machine as I am really busy on some contract work (i.e. the kind with really firm deadlines we have to deliver on) for the next few weeks.

Strange Week

Posted on by grahams

I’ve felt out of sorts all week, and I’m not sure why…   I ended up driving to work most of this week, so perhaps that has something to do with it.  I slipped and fell on the way to work on Monday, thanksto some piece of shit who couldn’t be bothered to clear their sidewalk…  After I got to work, I hooked up my iPod to the computer and it wasn’t seeing the connection.  I thought it got damaged in the fall, but after banging it on the desk a few times and blowing out the dock connector, it finally seemed to work.

Corinna and I continue trying to button up the remainder of the pre-sale house tasks…  Last weekend we moved even more stuff into the storage locker..  We have a few final things to put in there, and I will hopefully get them together this weekend and be able to check that box.  Last night I took

[info]coco_b

to Home Depot so she could pick out paint for the bedroom and get some other supplies.  I am no fun to shop with, so we have an agreement where I am the chauffeur and then I sit in the car doing whatever..   Last night I spent the time catching up on old issues of Skeptical Inquirer.  I have a stack of about 6 issues that I never even opened, and I’d rather not move them if I don’t have to…

Today I walked in…  It’s so beautiful outside, it was really invigorating!

This Sunday, the film club is going to a pre-screening of “Hot Fuzz” at the Brattle, and Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright will be there in person…  Should be a good time!